Cardiff Airport: Qatar Airways planned return is 'big boost'

  • Alun Cairns described the route as a "big boost" for the airport and south Wales

A Welsh MP has told ITV News he is "really pleased" that a global airline is planning to resume flying from Cardiff by the end of this year.

Alun Cairns, the Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, was in Doha last week and met Akbar Al Baker, the CEO of Qatar Airways.

The airline had launched daily flights between Cardiff Airport and Qatar in May 2018, but the route was paused during the pandemic.

  • "It's a big boost to south Wales"

Mr Cairns told ITV Cymru Wales that the route was "growing in all ways" before its suspension.

He added that people living across the border would come into Wales to use the service.

Mr Cairns was the UK Government's Welsh Secretary when Qatar Airways launched flights between Cardiff and Doha in 2018. Credit: PA Images

Mr Cairns said the resumption of the service would make Cardiff Airport "more relevant to the UK and south west England".

Cardiff Airport's CEO Spencer Burns told ITV's Wales this Week programme back in March: "We were getting passengers from Plymouth and Swindon when we had the Qatar service operating. We actually had customers coming from Leeds."